While the BBC spends most of its TV licence revenue on overpaying chatshow hosts and making fine nature documentaries, ORF, its Austrian equivalent, prefers to splash its cash on overpaying chatshow hosts and making fine free winter sports games. For years ORF have been dishing out top-notch ski simulators. The latest – Ski Challenge 2009 – lets you slide down six famous European peaks at breakneck speeds. Don’t be put-off by the Deutsch web page. The installer and game menus are all in English.

As lovely as SC-09 is, it lacks – like all skiing sims I’ve tried – a certain physicality. The challenge of adjusting speed and line are there, but there’s no sense that you’re actually hurtling down the mountain on two planks of carbon-fibre rather than one. You might as well be on a sledge or a cello case. I’m still waiting for a ski sim in which each ski is controlled by a separate key set, or thumbstick.

If SC-09 puts you in a snowy mood then the demo of Biathlon 2009 is another interesting place to spend time. Skiing plus shooting should be an irresistible mix. The fact that it isn’t, probably owes something to that lack of physicality again. Until some clever dev does something fresh with this subzero sub-genre, all skiing games will remain slightly prettier versions of William Tang’s 1982 opus.

Awesome! I’m from Austria and it’s really funny to see you post about this.

I have to confess, I never bothered with Ski Challenge, because I’m not a fan of Ski broadcasts (of which ORF shows plenty, this time of the year) or sport simulations, but I have some friends who have been downloading these games for a few years now.

never bothered with the games either, not really a fan of any sports game in fact
and I don’t have a TV anymore, but Dead Fish reminded me that during the winter season ORF felt pretty much like “Ski-TV” … I hated that

But, it’s true, ever since dual analog sticks were introduced I’ve been waiting for a skiing game that has that kind of dual leg control. I almost patented the concept (lol, come on, I was rather young) but then I figured it’s best out in the open and up for grabs by any developers. A decade later, nobody has done it. What the hell?!

French and Swiss television also sponsor this (and probably some others). It’s actually a bigger deal than you’d think. You can register online, and compete online, and get ranked on a leaderboard. The courses are unlocked across the ski season (so, a week before the pros race at Bormio, they unlock the course), and there are TV-publicized competitions, and prize winners.

When I moved into this office a few years ago, not only did it have the spectacular view of the Alps out the window, but it also had a rather intense office Ski Challenge rivalry.

So no, it ain’t a hardcore sim, but it has a huge and hardcore following. Don’t be like Mr. Rossignol and underestimate the social power of video games!

Writing from Zurich in Switzerland. Swiss TV now got trouble because of the IGA in the game and because they are advertising it on their page, which is payed by the taxpayer (e.g. me…). The game is good though, even if the 2007 edition was alot better. And yes, it’s about a load of cash…

The thing with a dual-leg-control thing is that when skiing, unless you’re doing a cross country/walking thing, your legs do typically act as a single unit. So there isn’t much wrong with depicting it like that.

Arienette, Yes, the challenge would be coordinating each set of controls, and fighting against the physics and the bumps to keep everything tight. Obviously there’d need to be some sort of ski position graphic to work off.

Tim left out the most notable part of this game; You can compete on-line in time trials, and there are “official” race days you can participate in. It has a nice race sim ghost feature where you can select any of the recorded times and watch how they did it in a replay.